The runaway success of Monster Hunter Wilds is impressive despite it not being the least bit surprising. The series' push toward accessibility that began with Monster Hunter World has now culminated in Monster Hunter Wilds being an ideal starting point for series newcomers, which has resulted in the title rocketing past a million concurrent players on Steam, and that's without even having the metrics for console performance. Many of those million-plus players are likely playing Monster Hunter Wilds in co-op, which is traditionally one of the best ways to experience a Monster Hunter campaign, but this latest entry makes some noteworthy changes to how online multiplayer works, for better or worse.
While most of the previous Monster Hunter games required players to interact with a Quest Board to post quests, send invites, and link up with friends for co-op hunts, Monster Hunter Wilds largely does away with it. Instead, players can directly connect with friends in Linked Parties, which enables them to seamlessly hop into any of their party members' active quests without the need for invites or SOS Flares. It's a bit of a catch-22 in that, while co-op gameplay is more easily implemented than any Monster Hunter game before it, Monster Hunter Wilds seemingly abandons the structure and focus that the Quest Board previously provided.
Monster Hunter Wilds: How To Play With Friends
To play Monster Hunter Wilds with friends, you must either add your friend in-game or establish a private server to invite them to.
Monster Hunter Wilds Enables Seamless Co-Op Play But at a Cost
Though Monster Hunter Wilds offers some of the series' best and most seamless co-op, it's not exactly easy to understand how to join up with friends. Wilds somewhat buries a lot of the important information on how to invite friends and join a Linked Party, which is one of the primary avenues by which co-op becomes seamless. Once in a Linked Party, players no longer need to bother with SOS Flares or Monster Hunter's traditional methods of posting quests and using vouchers to join up with friends. Instead, once a Linked Party member begins a monster hunt, Monster Hunter Wilds automatically sends out an invite to all players in the Linked Party, allowing them to abandon their current quest and join.
But that seamless implementation of co-op does come at the cost of the structure that the traditional Quest Board system provided. Despite players needing to jump through a few extra hoops to post quests and accept invites in previous Monster Hunter titles, the Quest Board system provided a sense of structure that kept players in a co-op party on the same page regardless of their progress through the main quest. While co-op is now easier to jump into than ever, if one player in a Linked Party gets locked into a quest chain as part of the main story, they'll be unable to join any co-op hunts until they're finished, which Monster Hunter Wilds doesn't effectively communicate.
What Players Should Know Before Attempting Co-Op in Monster Hunter Wilds
One of the more valuable tips regarding Monster Hunter Wilds' new seamless implementation of co-op — thanks to Linked Parties — is avoiding progressing story content if the goal of a session is to play with friends. Once any player in a Linked Party begins main story content, they can no longer join any invites received from their Linked Party members until that content is complete. In some cases, this means completing entire quest chains that can take up to an hour or more, all while missing out on the ability to hop in seamlessly with friends.
Ultimately, Monster Hunter Wilds' new co-op functionality is a net positive. Though it does lack the clear structure of the Quest Board system from previous Monster Hunter games, it's now easier than ever to join up with friends and stick to the core gameplay loop of hunting monsters and crafting gear with spoils. That said, it's a good idea to advance the story as much as possible when playing solo to not miss out on co-op invites when they do arrive.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
